Mold spots found in Delaware Valley school

Mold growth was discovered last month in a Delaware Valley Elementary School kindergarten classroom.

BETH BRELJE

Mold growth was discovered last month in a Delaware Valley Elementary School kindergarten classroom.

The mold, two or three spots about the size a pencil eraser, was found on Feb. 28. The district had the entire weekend to treat it, so students were not removed from the classroom, and a letter was not sent home to parents regarding the discovery, officials said.

Since the discovery, maintenance workers are checking for mold daily.

"We are watching it like a hawk," said district Facilities Manager Marvin Eversdyke.

It's not the first time mold was discovered in the 58-year-old school that is marked for demolition after a new elementary school is built in Matamoras.

In April 2013, parents received a letter explaining that mold was found on a wall in a kindergarten room and on a wall in the DVE-TV room.

"Every year, we have an environmental company conduct indoor air quality tests for 20 different items in each school. DVES was tested in the fall of 2012 and passed the tests in all 20 areas," the April letter from Superintendent John Bell said.

The 2013 mold was found in two separate wings. In each case, the walls were exterior walls with the mold found on the interior side in classrooms.

At that time, the district removed students from the rooms, power-washed the exterior of the building in those areas, and the two walls with mold were thoroughly cleaned with bleach and other cleaning products.

Any cracks on the interior or the exterior of the cinderblock walls were sealed; the two walls were sealed with Dry-Loc to prevent moisture from seeping in from outside; walls were repainted to match the other walls in the room and all classroom furniture and equipment were cleaned thoroughly.

Once the rooms passed indoor air quality testing, students returned to the rooms.

The same kindergarten room is the one that had mold again last month.

Eversdyke said the exterior of the building gets no direct sunlight on the walls where mold grew inside, and in 2013, water had been draining toward the walls. The district moved the water flow away from the building to cut down on moisture. He suspects an abundance of snow contributed to this most recent mold flare-up.

An air quality test was done at Delaware Valley Elementary by JMSI Environmental Corp. on April 15, 2013. The study analyzed the air, searching for relative humidity, temperature, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds. It found normal, acceptable air quality.